This invention relates generally to the pillows and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus to facilitate sleeping of infants.
A newborn, in the first days of life, may spend up to approximately two-thirds of each twenty-four hour period asleep. The fact that infants spend more time asleep than awake during the first three years of their life suggests that sleep plays a more crucial role during this age period. Sleep is important for physical recuperation, physical growth, the immune system, brain development, learning, memory, and information processing as well as many other systems of the brain and the human body. Moreover, as has been shown in studies, infants who don't get enough sleep or sleep poorly are often characterized by difficult temperament and as highly stressful to their parents. Babies may suffer from their poor sleep quality and from the adverse responses of their exhausted and inpatient parents.
Several recent studies suggest that infants sleep with fewer awakenings when swaddled, and swaddling may help sleeping infants remain on their backs. In addition, other studies have suggested that swaddling may make a baby feel more secure and thus may limit the startle reflex of the baby. Moreover, to facilitate reducing the risks of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) other studies have recommended that babies be placed on their backs to sleep.
However, it may be difficult for a parent to learn how to correctly swaddle an infant for sleep, even after receiving training at the maternity ward. For example, as an infant grows, if the infant is not wrapped correctly and rolls while swaddled, a loose blanket may become inadvertently positioned across the infant's mouth, thus making breathing difficult. Accordingly, at least some known blankets are sized, shaped, or textured to facilitate assisting parents in swaddling their infants and to facilitate the blanket staying wrapped around the infant. However, such blankets may be expensive and may only provide limited swaddling if the baby rolls while wrapped by such blankets.